Sell house or give it back? (Scotland)

jkm79

Hi, I'm new here and come under the sad circumstances of my mums death.

She has left me her home, outright, and there are no problems with that side of things. I'm keen to move in, it's a family home and I feel very close to my mum there.

ANYWAY, the problem is my flat. I want a quick sale but don't trust these 'sell your home fast' people. We've only had the mortgage for three years so haven't made much of a dent in it, if anything we're probably in negative equity.

We have NO money up front just now for anything, the place is in a reasonable state but I'm being made redundant in a month (on top of everything else!) so we really can't afford to dicky it up - to be honest I don't know where we'll find the money for the Home Report.

Would there be fees involved if we gave it back to the bank, or is this classed as a repossesion?

Really desperate, just want to get it off our backs.

Thanks

Jowo_2

Have a look at the Shelter Scotland website which has info for struggling homeowners and give them a call to understand whether you will be liable for costs by abandoning it.

silvercar

If you hand the keys back, the lender will sell it and look to you to pay the difference between the selling price and the outstanding mortgage, arrears,, repossession costs, costs of the sale....

As you have another property now, you could well end up with a charge on that property in the lender's attempts to secure their loss.

sparklymessygirl

I think the ususal advice is that the homeowner will usually get more for the sale than if it were sold by the bank so I would start marketing it pretty quickly at a realistic price (plus take advice as indicated by the poster above).

Perhaps another option would be to see if you could rent it out and cover the mortgage that way?

Sparkly

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Under no circumstances should you "hand it back".... This is a reposession, the bank WILL come after you for any difference, and it could lead to bankruptcy, ruin your credit rating for a decade, etc etc etc.

Sell it yourself. If you are in negative equity, you'll have to rent it out.

If you can post more details about when you bought it and roughly where you are, I can link you to house price reports for that area that will let you see if you are likely to be in negative equity or not.

Some areas and property types are already back to peak prices in Scotland, and many more are close, so you may be pleasantly surprised.

jkm79

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Under no circumstances should you "hand it back".... This is a reposession, the bank WILL come after you for any difference, and it could lead to bankruptcy, ruin your credit rating for a decade, etc etc etc.

Sell it yourself. If you are in negative equity, you'll have to rent it out.

If you can post more details about when you bought it and roughly where you are, I can link you to house price reports for that area that will let you see if you are likely to be in negative equity or not.

Some areas and property types are already back to peak prices in Scotland, and many more are close, so you may be pleasantly surprised.

We bought in December 2006, it's in Renfrew

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

jkm79 wrote: »

We bought in December 2006, it's in Renfrew

Registers of Scotland has the average price in Renfrewshire in Dec 2006 as £119,000, and in Feb 2010 (last available) as £118,000.

http://www.ros.gov.uk/professional/eservices/land_property_data/lpd_stats.html

And you should have built up at least a few thousand equity by paying the mortgage since then.

Unless your flat is particularly undesirable, you should be able to break even by selling it this summer.

Look around for solicitors/EA's that will pay for the home report up front and take it off the sale price, I believe some will do that.

And also start talking to rental agencies in case it doesn't sell.

Good Luck.

googler

Look at www.zoopla.co.uk - it will have sale prices up to end of February for your street, postcode and town. Get the prices of properties similar to yours.

Get valuations from two or three LOCAL agents, and ask them what they would price it at TO SELL, and sell quickly.

Compare your own research from zoopla with the agent's figures, and that should give a realistic idea of what it will go for.

From there, choose the agent who seems the most active, who looks as thought they'll put the most effort behind you, and who seems to have the best marketing package.

googler

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Registers of Scotland has the average price in Renfrewshire in Dec 2006 as £119,000, and in Feb 2010 (last available) as £118,000.

The average price for the county as a whole tells this poster NOTHING.

They need to know what's been selling in their locale, and in their price band, and for their style of property.

As I showed you in another thread, if the increased number of sales at £300k and above have taken the average up, and this poster is in the £100-125k range, and the average price IN THAT RANGE has dropped, then this is at variance with your apparent assertion that prices haven't dropped by any more than £1,000 in all of Renfrewshire.............

googler

Were there no other assets in your Mum's estate, or were these bequeathed to others.....?

jkm79

googler wrote: »

Were there no other assets in your Mum's estate, or were these bequeathed to others.....?

There was money for the funeral. Why do you ask?